Tag Archive: Drama

In a provincial town in France, 1932, a widow, Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) and her daughter, Isabelle (Sophie Thursfield) live an insular, suffocated life with their maid, Christine Papin (Joely Richardson). Christine’s younger sister, Lea (Jodhi May), comes to work at the house, which is when the action of the film begins. Madame Danzard runs …

[You’re on the correct site—this film is here because it’s Service Porn. I haven’t lost my mind.] It’s 1932 and roughly 900 British actors descend on a country house out in the …country. (The only British actors not present are Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Judi Dench, but Judi’s daughter attends in her stead. Hugh …

U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) has the hate horn on for hedge fund genius Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod (Damian Lewis). Rhoades knows Axelrod has built his fortune from nothing using less-than-honest means—primarily insider trading—and it’s his job to prosecute people who break the law on behalf of the American people. But this instance is personal. …

Mona (Orsolya Torok-Illyes) arrives at a bleak social services office, where a man informs her that a report has been made concerning a child of three years of age. The child was in the care of the child’s aunt and she was made to perform for money and has also drunk brandy to make her …

A couple who’ve been together a few months are having difficulties because the man—Paul (Sagamore Stevenin) is no longer interested in sex. He doesn’t think it’s important. Marie (Caroline Ducey) heartily disagrees. She wants to be with him every night. He gives her tacit permission to have an affair—or at least wouldn’t be bothered if …

The titular Kelly (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) and Victor (Julian Morris) meet at a club on his 28th birthday. After which they go back to her place and snort something called meow meow then have unprotected sex where it becomes apparent she’s something of a sadist, strangling him (with no negotiation and what appears to be without …

Morosgovanyi (Csaba Czene) is an orderly to an exceedingly harsh lieutenant in the Hungarian military during the Second World War. Life is brutal so he spends time exploring his perversions (including sticking something flammable in his urethra) and fantasies (like getting a handjob from the Little Match Girl). One of these fantasies—which turns into one …

Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen) is a successful fashion designer. She’s also rather self-absorbed and doesn’t appear to leave her house—the world comes to her. She loves a wig and extravagant outfits even though she doesn’t go out. (This isn’t due to agoraphobia—it’s more down to the film being based on a play.) Her assistant, …

Olivier (Gerard Depardieu) has just moved to Paris, and he doesn’t have a place to stay. He asks an acquaintance in the city, Mario (Andre Rouyer), who has recently begun earning his living honestly if he may stay with him, as he doesn’t start work until September (we aren’t told what month it presently is). …

There are films that exist outside of themselves—by that I mean—it’s impossible for the viewer to completely suspend disbelief, as they are regularly brought to the present by the question, ‘How did this get made? What were the circumstances that allowed this to happen?’ Caligula falls into this category. The Night Porter isn’t nearly as …

Prologue In a segment that is silent and black and white, we are shown three different, brief scenes, with titles between them explaining what’s happening a la the early days of cinema. First is Johann who enters a Russian town through immigration control. Then Dr Stasov, who adopts Siamese infants. Two boys of Asian extraction …

I’ve been avoiding writing this review for weeks. So I’m just going to do it. I have vertigo right now so feel a little drunk and that’s perfect for reasons that will become apparent in a little bit. This probably won’t be my best review ever, but this… thing… wasn’t the best viewing experience ever, …

After his father has a stroke, Jeffery Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his small town in North Carolina to help with the family hardware store. He’s standing in a field after visiting his father one day and comes across a severed human ear, which he puts in a small paper bag and takes to the …

Lynn (Vicky Krieps) is the housekeeper every person who has ever stayed at a hotel wants—she is meticulous. She even cleans rooms no one has stayed in. Prior to the action of the film, Lynn voluntarily spent some time in a mental hospital, though we don’t find out why. (This film leaves many questions unanswered. …

I wasn’t looking at the screen when Gaspar Noe’s Love started—I was looking at my laptop—and the first thing I hear is Bean saying, ‘Well, dang.’ I look up and, on my Netflix-showing screen is a woman stroking a very erect dick with her face right next to it while a dude is enthusiastically fingering …

Two theatre actors have been struggling with a scene in the play they’re in. Before the matinee performance Daniel (Steven McAlistair—NOT Alan Cumming) goes to talk to his co-star Mariah (Alicia Whitsover) about ‘art’ and ‘truth’ or something. He tries reblocking—changing the way they move during the scene—without the director’s approval or even anyone else …

It’s the 1970s and Bess McNeill (Emily Watson) is a devout young woman in a strict church in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. She has saved herself for her husband, for that is what good girls do and she so wants to be a good girl. She marries an outsider–the not-Scottish, not-religious Jan …

Nancy Stockwell (Maria Bello) is in a … ‘loveless’ is too nice of a word. There is a void where love should be. She spends her time self harming and talking to her therapist (Amy Brenneman) about her truly terrible childhood. Oh, and talking to strangers on the internet about her masochistic fantasies. Her husband, …

A modern Greek family consisting of heterosexual parents, two daughters and a son (no names are ever given) live in a large house with expansive gardens and a pool. And a high fence that keeps the mother and children locked in snuggly while the father goes to work. The children are grown—the eldest girl and …

There are certain films on the Wikipedia page of ‘BDSM in Film‘ that I have no interest in seeing. Until last week Lars von Trier’s epic Nymphomaniac was on that list—it was too long and the trailer didn’t make it look like anything I would enjoy. (And though I’d liked Melancholia, Antichrist made me want …